Goose Green a sideshow
SIR: With respect to my erstwhile colleague Robert Fox’s article on the Falklands (May issue), he is talking nonsense. The battle for Goose Green was not a ‘decisive hinge’ in the British expedition to take back the Falklands. It was a false objective forced upon the commander of 3 Commando Brigade, Brigadier (later Major-general) Julian Thompson in order to give the army and politicians – safe from shot and shell back at home – an early victory; as if the remarkable landings in San Carlos were not a significant enough victory (being the most ‘decisive hinge’ of all) and, in themselves, worthy of celebration.
Fox’s comparison with the Battle of Jutland is also misjudged. The loss of Jutland might well have led to the loss of that war, but the loss of Goose Green – a battle not in the brigadier’s plan – would, apart from the casualties and the needless expenditure of precious munitions, have been a meaningless hiccup. The brigadier’s objective was Stanley, not a sideshow stuck out on a limb 78 ‘Johnny rook’ miles away. One land battle lost in a campaign does not signify a war is lost, just as ships lost did not prevent the Royal Navy, either in 1916 or in 1982, from continuing to take the fight to the enemy.
No war is won without risk, and that risk includes losses, whether parliamentarians like it or not. Had Goose Green not been recaptured, the brigadier would simply have continued doing what he always planned to do and that was to let that enemy garrison wither on the vine, with all reinforcements blocked, while his marines and paras (who would have initially regrouped in a secure position) advanced eastwards towards the primary objective.
To suggest the loss of Goose Green would have led to the end of Maggie Thatcher and her government is equal nonsense. It should, though, have led to the end of those army buffoons in London who ordered the Royal Navy task force commander in Northwood to execute this pointless attack. Lt-col Ewen Southby-tailyour OBE, Royal Marines, Ermington, Devon